I love this photo and not just because I took it but because it makes me remember just how proud we should be of our country and all the men, women and children who make it GREAT!

Now if this day could last forever I wouldn't have to do the annual celebration of becoming older than I really want to admit tomorrow.

**Update: Okay I will never say those kinds of things again about not wanting tomorrow to happen. I had a close brush with death, what I thought was a cute fuzzy caterpillar and it turned out to be so toxic it can kill humans. It is now our pet since I'm afraid to let it back out in the yard.**

Criminals always return to the scene of the crime or so they say and this one is no exception she's going to get two days in the slammer (better know as the garage) for committing this kitty crime in my backyard vegetable and herb garden.

Let's see if she can escape the slammer using her same digging method. Need a spoon?

I hope it's going to be one of those days where you spend the afternoon daydreaming or reading a book in the hammock chance are it won't but doesn't it look so relaxing and after the weekend I just had I could use an afternoon like that. But school's almost out for Buddy (three more days!!!) and the girls have a few chapters to finish online before we can kick up our feet.

I've been also counting down the days until June 1st that when we get to turn on the ac!!!! The house has been an uncomfortable 84 degrees this week and with only a slight chance of rain today it's not cooling down anytime soon around here. I love conserving energy and save $$$ on the electric bill but who knew May was going to be an 85+ everyday. This week it's 90 degees across the board, WOW! and it's not even summer.

That's My Buddy as a sheepdog in his kindergarten graduation play which was simply adorable and all the kids were fantastic! But it's official he will be a first grader next year. It seems like yesterday I was dropping him off for his first day, well it was! Maybe not yesterday but March 14th. He's my only pea in public school and I so proud at how hard he worked to catch up on everything the kids in his class learned since August and was able to pass all the standardized test to move on to first. He's a bit of a teacher's pet and friends with everyone in the school and he wouldn't have it any other way.

If I hadn't mentioned it enough I was at the Hangout Music Festival for three days part working and part enjoying myself. Last night was the BEST CONCERT EVER!!!!!!

Hangout Music Festival Gulf Shores, AL 2011

I started my work day with Ween, super cool, then headed across the beach to watch Michael Franti who puts on a show like no other if you've never heard or seen him catch some clips on youtube this was my second time seeing him in concert and that man loves, loves, loves everyone and everything and we love him too! So after Franti I had to camped out for Paul Simon, the photo pit was closed and so on, since this was something I put on my life's checklist there was no way I'd miss him playing in my own backyard and no way I'd be any further back than 2 heads front and center.

Paul Simon rocked the house he played every song I'd ever want to hear and more! Sound Of Silence, Call me Al, Kodachrome,Diamonds on the soles of her shoesand 5o ways to leave your lover. The concert also went on 45 minutes longer than scheduled and he played like he was there for us waving to the crowd, thank you! I swear we made eye contact and awesome doesn't even describe it. I took hundreds of photos and minutes of video with my camera, got back and realized video technology has surpasses me and I need to learn how to edit all my footage but I was able to capture Sound of Silence with my phone and post it for you!!!!

Check out these video clips.

I especially loved the conversation behind me between to guys after the song "Hey did you sing during Sound of Silence?" "No, well I tried not to, shoot I probably ruined someone's video."

What do you get when you mix gingerbread marshmallows, a glass of rice milk and coconut cookies?

…A Pool Party!

Sia loves, loves, loves everything gingerbread (I think she believes their real people not cookies or in this case marshmallows) and set up this little scene with her afternoon snack. I thought it was so cute!

Today we finally hung up the art project the Peas worked on a few weeks ago at our public library. Our backyard is full of color and goodwill blowing in the wind. We learned about Tibetan people and how they traditionally use these prayer flags to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to god, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space and the prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all.

The kids wrote whatever they felt would help make the world a better place. Little E made pictures of flowers and a peace sign, Lulu wanted a villan free world, while Sia wants no more guns and My Buddy wants a nerf gun to shoot his sisters.

And the friendship one of the most important flag of all, without them our lives would not be as happy.

To make the Tibetan Prayer Flags you will need:
5- 4 inch square pieces of material any pattern or color
5- white squares of material smaller in size to write your blessing on
string long enough to hang
elmers glue
fabric markers or sharpies

Glue the 5 colored flags to the string by glue the top inch of the material then folding over the string. While it dries write you blessings on the white squares the glue them onto the colored squares let dry and hang in the wind to spread your wonderful messages to the world.

I will warn everybody ahead of time this art project is not for the light stomached or people who don't like the smell of gym socks.

After reading about lint art I spent months collecting lint last year back when we had a dryer. It seemed like a fun way of reducing waste and reusing dryer lint. It's is clean, right? So I thought why not. But and that's a big but lint is full of all sorts of stuff from cat hair to sticker, glitter to bug parts and when you add liquid to it lets just say the last time I smelled something like that was in my High School gym locker room and if you don't like the look of cat vomit this is not a project for you if anyone.

Ingredients:

3 cups dryer lint

1 cup flour

2 cups water

1/4 cup cooking oil

Mix in a sauce pan over warm heat until it turns smooth and smelly pasty.

I did see another recipe that add wintergreen oil probably to help the smell factor.

To make a mold cover an object with the wet lint clay. You must coat all object with a cooking spray or oil, the lint will stick otherwise.

Lulu couldn't handle it's odor or the cat barf consistency as well as the others.

Allow to dry in the sun for 2-3 days or 7-10 indoors then it's ready to paint and cover up the smell, did I mention enough times how smelly this project is?

The Masterpiece Pig!

We didn't grease the other objects before applying the lint clay and it was more like lint cement and had to be throw away.

If you have your own dryer lint craft ideas please post a comment with the link.

I scoured the internet last night looking for striped silk drapes (curtains or what ever you may call them) I checked the usual Ebay then PB and Restoration H for sales I needed the cheapest priced on high quality, not an easy fete, the best I found was $85 at Overstock so after a couple hours I gave up and went to bed.

This afternoon I needed to pick up some goodies at the market and on a whim I took the girls to the local Goodwill next store, we found a few cute little necklaces and cute Ella Moss shirt but not much until I glanced through the bedding section and came across the most gorgeous pair of 104" long lined silk drapes in the most perfect color for my dining room and even better they were $9.98 for the pair and really high quality they must have cost a small fortune to someone. I happily left the store having save hundreds of $$$$ and just over the moon, not only do they look fabulous but it's an eco-friendly way to decorate. In our house we love to follow the 4 R's reduce, reuse, recycle and replenish.

I wish sometimes that I could thank to people that donated such wonderful items and tell them how happy their generosity has made others.

It's hard to tell but the drapes have three colored stripes a muted green, golden yellow and cream.

I hung them as high as I could and even then they still make a pool of fabric on the ground just like I wanted , it gives the illusion of the ceilings appear taller since it's a 70's ranch the rooms can seem a bit claustrophobic at times.

Trains and kids seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. I wonder what it is about them? My kiddos can play for hours going on cross-county adventures first as a bunch of runaway orphans then as great explorers hopping from train car to train car. Lucky for me this one wasn't going anywhere except the museum grounds.

I think it's going to by one of those days to just kick off our shoes and enjoy the sunshine after such a wonderful yet busy Mother's day weekend. Buddy happens to have a school field trip to the beach this morning so we have no choice it's mandatory! The water calls, see ya tomorrow.

Today this happiness project feels more like a diet, you start off the great and after a couple weeks you find yourself binging on everything you gave up and in this case it's not sweets or junk food it's yelling at the kids and stressing out over socks in the livingroom and like any diet you rationalize the behavior eat a few more bonbons and wake up then next morning ready to get back on the diet or in this case the happiness wagon.

I'm not one to read, some people just say that as an exaggeration but no really I haven't read anything beyond an 20 page children's book since I was in college maybe even high school. But about a month ago we were quite down on our luck, I was trying to find money for the rent and getting help with our food, the kiddos and I went into local Goodwill to look for a school uniform shirt (for Buddy) and Lulu always spends her time glancing through the books for her latest read, she's a true bookworm, it was then when I noticed this brightly colored book of sorts sitting there with the word HAPPINESS across so of course I pick it up, who doesn't need more happiness especially after going through the terrible D word and having your life turned upside down, then as I was about to put it down the yellow $1.19 price tag flashed like a neon sign and I thought it's at least worth a try even if I don't go past page 3. I went about reading this Happiness Project from a woman I'd never heard of living half way across the country in a big city, what could we have in common I thought? Well we both want to be happy! I decided as to not get too overwhelmed with the thought of reading 297+ pages and went about it like I had for the past 10 years and started read 20 pages a day as if it was a children's book, but on some days I found myself so immersed in what I was reading that 60 pages would fly by before I lifted my head. I will say it was more pleasurable than I thought and not painful at all and as I started chapter 12(the last chapter) I was ironically sad that the my happiness project was ending or as I have since found out just beginning.

If you're in need of a little more happiness check out Gretchen Rubin's book.

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Utopia by definition is described as a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society, it's an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The word was first used in the book Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More.

Hi everyone! I'm Kate a former career photojournalist, now lifestyle photographer/blogger by survival. My home is a major fixer upper with multiple projects happening at all times, a place where I try and craft a perfect life, amiss the reality of our incredibly poor financial situation and the daily challenges of raising 4 children alone.